Interesting. I would never have guessed tomato is in it, but looking online, tomato paste is right there towards the end of the ingredients list (and, from what I could find, the original one, too.) The main vegetable ingredients are rutabaga, carrot, onion, and cauliflower. Branston Pickle Relish, though, doesn’t have tomato.
It’s good stuff and, yes, goes best with a cheese like a cheddar, though I really can’t see why a smoked gouda wouldn’t work.
I may have purchased the wrong item. It says Branston Original on the jar. IMO smoked gouda was completely overwhelmed by it. It’s a pretty mild cheese compared to a sharp cheddar.
Guess it depends on how smoky or aged that gouda is. 
(Some goudas are quite strong, but those are not usually the smoked kinds, but the ones that are aged 5-7 years; stronger than a cheddar in the same age range.) But, yeah, go for sharper cheeses, for sure. It is aggressive, but I like it even in a grilled cheese sandwich made with American Kraft singles (how much blander can you get), probably because it actually gives the sandwich some flavor.
OK,I tried it with sharp cheddar. It helps a lot. It might be an acquired taste. I was expecting more caramelized onion and less vinegar. It’s the vinegar that stands out.
I noticed over the weekend when I had fish and chips and did some browsing in the British store adjoining the restaurant, that there are a couple variations of Branston Pickle- the “original” which is chunky, and a finer chop version (“Small Chunk”).
Is one better than the other for sandwiches?
YMMV of course but the small chunk one is for sandwiches (allows greater spreadification) but there are those of us who rather like the big crunchy chunks even if an equal pickle coverage is hard to acheive. It adds mystery and uncertainty. Every mouthfull is an adventure.
Mind you, I may be an anomaly as I rarely go purely for cheese and pickle and often slide some ham in there as well, a nice breaded thick sliced yorkshire style ham, good eatin’
I prefer small chop, but de gustibus.
Never seen the small chop Branston, but I do like The Pickle Guy’s minced giardiniera.
I was making a sandwich for lunch (it’s especially good on a hot summer day) and read the ingredients list on the Branston. One item was “puree”. Pureed what? no indication.
Maybe it’s pureed mince.
Probably tomato puree. You sure it wasn’t from the line before, like this one:
That said, the ingredient labels vary a bit on Branston Pickle, depending on where you get it from. I could have sworn some Branston Pickle has “marrow” (as in the British word for a type of summer squash) in it, but the one I have and the first few pictures I found of ingredient labels don’t list it.
At a wild guess, it might be that pretty well flavourless veg like marrow might be used interchangeably for bulking
I suspect the list of ingredients varies somewhat according to whatever’s available seasonally.
So this thread made me want to try this sandwich. I went on Amazon and Branston pickle was not cheap. And it came with a $10 shipping charge. Didn’t feel like spending that.
There used to be some British themed groceries around here but doing a Google search seemed to suggest they are no more.
So I went to the local supermarket and checked out the tiny British food section. I found Heinz ploughman’s pickle. I read online that Branston is just a brand of ploghman’s pickle. So I tired that. After all that I didn’t feel like making another stop too get genuine English cheddar, so I went with what looked like the best quality American cheddar at the place where I was (it was Vermont cheddar). And I used the low-carb sandwich bread I had at home.
Put it all together. It was okay. Probably not something I would crave, but it was fine. Could use some meat in it.
I have a jar of Good Good blueberry. It’s good! It has lasted a long time because I don’t eat much jam/jelly.
Just to clarify, in case there are people in the thread who don’t know:
Jelly: made with fruit juice only, no actual fruit. It’s a homogenous, smooth gel.
Jam: made with fruit juice and fruit pieces. It’s a bit lumpy
Fruit Preserves: made with fruit pieces or whole fruit only, no juice. It’s all lumps.
And grape is by far the default. The pre-mixed peanut butter and jelly spreads use grape jelly.
American peanut butter can run the gamut from unsweetened to very sweet. They all have salt. They all go well with jam/jelly.
I believe that a “gherkin” is technically a specific kind of small cucumber, so that’s why a jar of small cucumber picked is called “pickled gherkins.” I have noticed that in non-U.S. English, the term “gherkin” is being expanded to all pickled cucumbers.
Syrup on pancakes is sweet and savory. Jam/jelly on bread ( with or without butter) is sweet and savory.
Yep, sweet and savory. Just like peanut butter and jelly.
Flapjacks, griddle cakes, hotcakes, hoe cakes, Johnny cakes, … I don’t think they are “slang terms.” They are dialectical variations.
Over here, Scotch pancakes, or drop scones.
This is incorrect. I think you got your definitions of preserves and jam reversed. Fruit preserves are essentially jelly with whole fruit pieces, so there is most definitely juice in it. Jam is usually made with whole fruit cooked until it’s jam, not usually with extra juice.
The main difference between jam and jelly is more to do with the spreadability and clarity, with jelly being more of both than jam. And the jam/preserves difference has to do with the size of the fruit solids- jam being puree or nearly so (maybe mashed fruit?) and homogenous, and preserves being composed of distinct chunks, with a sort of jelly between them derived from the juice in the fruit pieces, but not added separately.
I’ve always seen “fruit preserves” as an umbrella term that encompasses both jelly and jam.
At breakfast one day in Calcutta
Sat a man with a bit of a stutta
He said, “Pass the h-ham
And the j-j-j-jam
And the b-b-b-b-b-b-butta”
Yes, generically, but it also has a specific meaning.